Five Question Friday...answers

1. I think that I would want to have a French accent.
2. I have and can sleep anywhere as long as I'm comfortable and tired.
3. Being in the health care field you have to get over the fear of using a public bathroom otherwise your bladder would explode. I will not on the other hand use the bathroom at a public park. That is just straight up nasty.
4. I would want to be stuck in the elevator with....this one I think that I would have to pass. There are not many celebrities that I would want to spend time with.
5. I flew to Indiana for my first date with my husband. I would make that decision in a heartbeat. I love him!!!

Clinicals...nothing like how we practiced.

I promised that once I did a couple weeks of clinicals that I would give you an update of my progress. Right now I am currently Honors status with my grades. YEA ME!!!! Second of all dealing with real patients is nothing like we practiced or learned. Changing a colostomy bag on a dummy is a lot more pleasant than changing one that is full of poo and the patient wont quite playing with it making it a bigger mess for you too clean and putting them at risk for infection. Giving a bed bath to a plastic dummy is a lot easier than giving a bath to a 700 pound woman. You think when you are in school even though you know that it isn't like that in real life a part of you thinks that it will be similar to what you are doing in the lab skills part. It still will never prepare you for the first time you see someone butt naked that you didn't intentionally want to see. Or the first time that you have to give an injection and the patient screams because they didn't want to get a shot. Or when you are having to help hold up the 700 pound booty to get to a wound that is in the crevice of a fold in her butt. I really value my education and am very grateful that we were given a decent one but I am sooo glad that we do clinicals early on. I would hate to be a new nurse and to never have literally seen it all.

Answers to 5 question Friday.....

1. My first nightmare that I can remember happened shortly after we all watched Nightmare on Elm Street part 3. I had a dream about Freddy coming after me.

2. I really don't care for sports but I guess my favorite to watch would be Football.

3. I just wish I could pull off the entire ensemble. The costume jewelry boots and skinny jeans and the fashionable tops. Someday.....:0)

4. I made decent grades in high school. I wasn't valedictorian but now that I am in college I am making awesome grades now. I am currently honors status. We got our quarterly progress report today.

5. I like the gossip magazines like Life and Style and if I had the money I would subscribe to that one.

Nursing school update

Nursing school boot camp is almost over. We have two more weeks and then we start our clinicals. I am so excited. I have made it this far! I have been able to keep myself on directors honor roll and with 100 percent attendance this month. We have had some busy classes here lately. We have done catheters injections Peg tubes-giving meds in them. We have also pulled staples and stitches and of course the basic vitals. I have maintained a 97.5 in my skills. I am very proud of that. It shows I have the action behind my smarts. I am so excited. I have survived so many of the cuts. Our class started off with 41 and we are down to 23. I will keep you updated when we start clinicals.

Splash Pad

Somehow going to the splash pad seems to make everything seem ok in my kids eyes. Its amazing how a lot of water coming from some colorful pipes could make four kids so happy. This summer we have been taking the kids to the park and the splash pad a lot. Mostly because both of them are free but mostly because my kids enjoy it so much. I like the splash pad mostly because I can play with my kids in the water and no one will think differently about me. I must admit I enjoy the splash pad as much as they do. I also enjoy getting to see their smiling faces running around soaking wet but they are soooo happy. This melts my heart. I know that they are happy. They have had a blast there all summer. This summer there hasn't been as much free time since I have been in school but we are trying to keep them entertained while they are out of school but I am in. I have been a little selfish. I have also utilized the splash pad for some adult conversation. My best friend and I have been meeting at the splash pad to let our kids play and we also get to visit while they play. See who said a mom couldn't multi task? I have also made some new friends and my kids have also made some new friends this summer.

Nursing School

When they tell you that going to nursing school is hard they werent kidding. I am half way thru what they call nursing bootcamp. I have managed to make it this far and it has been quite a ride. I have had to do at least 2 hours a night if not more of homework or research or a project. I have managed to keep my grades up with an A average so far. I am very proud of that considering I have four kids and my husband isn't home at night because he works two jobs so that I dint have to work while I am in school. We had started our practicals in the lab learning the art of bedside care. This includes bed baths and changing the linens while the patient is in the bed and SRD's and transferring a patient for their bed to wheelchair and some others. I could go on forever about all this. I am learning that in Nursing school that you definitely have to learn to manage your time effectively. If you don't you will fail. Our class had a start of 41. We are now down to 28 or 29. We have lost quite a bit. We have also learned that if you don't show up you will fail too. There are several in our class that don't come to every class and or sleep in class and I am thinking why would you want to sleep when your education is right here in front of you and not to mention that it is very expensive and all you have to do is pay attention. You will learn a lot from the instructors. We have a wide variety of experience from the instructors. We have one that was in charge of the St. Francis Children's Hospital and one that did Labor and Delivery and one that did ICU. I am very excited about this career and life path that I was led to. God works in mysterious ways that is for sure. I am so glad that He intervened in our life when he did. Did I mention that my favorite subject so far is Anatomy and Physiology. Weird, HUH??? I did not do so well in high school in this subject but that is because I was more concerned about my social life than I was my education. Its not like that this time around. Its funny when you go to college and their will always be those people that act like they are still in high school. I made it clear from the very beginning...I am not here to make friends I am here to get an education, If I make some along the way great but I am not letting that be the focus of my life. I am doing this to help people and to provide a better choice of opportunities to my kids. I will try to keep you updated on my journey to becoming a nurse....

One year ago.....

One year ago at this time I was laying in my hospital bed with IVs everywhere and my kids with my mom and my husband sitting in the corner scared to death. It was about this time that we found out I had severe Pre Eclampsia and was experiencing all the symptoms (vision changes head aches...you get the point) As I lay there in my bed knowing what was going to transpire in 24 hours I was becoming nervous. I was in the hospital to deliver my last baby. Normally this would be a joyous occasion and it still was but the overwhelming fear in the pit of my stomach was growing. I was delivering him 5 weeks early. That is a scary thing. I have never had to deliver that early and I knew of the complications that were to come if things didn't go well. Just a couple days before I had an ultrasound and he looked normal and no cord around his neck. As the labor progressed I was becoming a little more calm probably because of the drugs and the wonderful nurse and husband that I had in the room. I wasn't worried until he came out. Landon was born at 4:05pm on June 3, 2009. He wasn't crying at first there was complete silence. The cord was around his neck. He was on the side of the fence that required him to be in the NICU and have his own support team. I got to see my son for 5 minutes at the most after all that pain and labor. His lungs were not developed like they should have been and he needed a lot of help. Almost two weeks later our little boy got to go home after proving he was a fighter and didn't want to be away from us. This is where I decided on what kind of nurse I want to be. I want to work on the Maternity floor or in the NICU. I am now enrolled in college to become an RN and to help people like they helped us. I am so grateful for everything and everyone at the NICU @ St. Johns. Its amazing how much can change in a year. You go from a really bad situation to now. I am so blessed to be here with a pretty healthy little one year old red headed boy. Things could have been so much worse.